The Criterion Collection

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I watched Batman vs. Superman last night for the first time.

This has future Criterion release written all over it.

I haven't seen storytelling on this level since the first time I read The Illiad.

Zack Snyder just seems to understand the nuances of epic tragedy in a way that few directors ever have.

...Homer would be proud.

Homer Simpson, maybe.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Disregard if you must as its not CC related (unless You Can Count on Me gets a release one day) but Margaret is OOP. Go grab your reasonably cheap used copies as soon as you can.

Wow. I just looked at the entry in this site's database. There's an Amazon Marketplace seller asking $200 for a new/sealed copy!

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by Lastyear

It was already remade as Against All Odds.

That was 30+ years ago.

It's long overdue for another one.

And then another five years later if the first one does well at the box office.

Chris Hemsworth will take over for Robert Mitchum.

...Margot Robbie for Jane Greer.

[I KEEL YOU]

Originally Posted by SkyAntoine

Persona is my #5 all-time film and Mulholland is #24. As much as I love those two 3 Women was not in the same league IMO. The other two blew my mind, but 3W left me very bewildered. More so because of the comparison to the other two films than anything.
Maybe I need to revisit to see what I'm missing.

For me it's 3 Women > Persona > Mulholland Drive. I've never seen 3 Women prior to owning a Criterion blu ray, partly because I understand it hasn't had any home video release whatsoever until the Criterion DVD, which came out around 2003-04. I could not believe that such a masterpiece could be hidden from the public for all those years.

The atmosphere is the key in 3 Women, not so much the plot/story. The guy who posted earlier that he "kept waiting for something to happen", yeah the movie probably wasn't for him since he wasn't affected by the atmosphere that Altman tried to create. If you're not affected by the dreamy cinematography with many wavy shot through water and the atonal flute music, then the movie is not for you.

[SkyAntoine]

The long weekend afforded me some time to hit a few big blindspots for me...

The Last Picture Show - With some recent discussion about Texasville on the Criterion Completion FB group, I had to crack open the BBS set and finally watch LPS. A grittier American Graffiti, it is now understandable to me why this is in the AFI 100. Memorizing characters and it may now be my favorite coming of age movie. Amazing from start to finish. 9/10

Red Beard - The length has deterred me from popping this in up until this weekend. Not sure I've seen a film that displays the value of humanity any better than this. A bit long with the back stories, but very effective nonetheless. Just shy of a masterpiece for me. 9/10

The Red Shoes - I started this once, wasn't in the mood and stopped after 5 minutes. Last night I wanted something to wow me visually...and boy did this one do just that. I can't say the narrative blew me away, but this is in the upper echelon as far as beautiful films go. I can't wait to dig into the supplements tonight. 9/10

Secret Honor - After watching State of Siege last week, I wanted to see something else in or on the Nixon era. I liked this, but it felt more like 3 hours than 90 minutes. The performance was outstanding, however I'm not a huge fan of the theater. 7/10

[jhiggy23]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Disregard if you must as its not CC related (unless You Can Count on Me gets a release one day) but Margaret is OOP. Go grab your reasonably cheap used copies as soon as you can.

I just have a feeling that many art house oriented users on this site are going to regret not grabbing a copy once they see Lonnergan's latest, Manchester by the sea , as it has been garnering rapturous reviews.

I'm looking forward to Manchester by the Sea, but I thought Margaret was absolutely awful and a disaster.

[theater dreamer]

The last sale was June 25th; they're doing it every three months. It was mentioned on the Warner Archive discussion thread the next is on September 23rd. Here's the last sale discussion thread. It's $11 per movie if you buy 4 or more, with free shipping on orders of $100 or more. Looks like all the titles (excluding those just released) were included. Only a few states have sales tax added on. Mine, fortunately, is not one of them. $11 a movie delivered is a real good deal. Any new releases, I can pick up during the next B&N 40% off sale.

Here's what I'm planing on:


The Hudsucker Proxy
Victor/Victoria
Far From the Maddening Crowd
The Wrong Man
I Confess
Yankee Doodle Dandy
42nd Street
Murder, My Sweet
Passage to Marseille
Father of the Bride
The Great Race

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

any 11 for $110? is this at the Warner site? I didn't hear about the first sale.

I watched I Confess, btw, for the first time last night and was surprised at how entertaining it is considering it's reputation. can't go wrong w/ Montgomery Clift, though.

[tatterdemalion]

Originally Posted by xxnomad

Can anyone sell me on zazie dans le metro?? Someone wants to trade that to me for one of my criterions that I mistakenly bought twice so it would basically be free for me.

It's a wacky Louis Malle "teen" film that'll either have you in stitches or scratching your head in bafflement. It's very artful, or as some call it pretentious (I happen to like pretentious), with bizarre camerawork and editing which inspired Godard's in Breathless.

I saw it earlier this year on TCM and enjoyed it a lot. I'm a Louis Malle fan and it's his weirdest film and this is the man who directed Black Moon and Viva Maria!

[llj]

I'll watch 3 Women when you single guys here get a girlfriend.

Seriously, though, I've got a sense of admiration for cinephiles who simply watch anything at any time. There are movies I just can't bring myself to watch sometimes--no matter how classic they are, how much they are masterpieces, etc--because I just don't feel like watching them at the time. I'll get to them when I feel like it. If I'm not in the mood for a war movie, I'm not gonna watch a war movie. Even if it's the greatest thing ever put on Earth since my birth.

[Arch Stanton]

What a weird post

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by llj

I'll watch 3 Women when you single guys here get a girlfriend.

Seriously, though, I've got a sense of admiration for cinephiles who simply watch anything at any time. There are movies I just can't bring myself to watch sometimes--no matter how classic they are, how much they are masterpieces, etc--because I just don't feel like watching them at the time. I'll get to them when I feel like it. If I'm not in the mood for a war movie, I'm not gonna watch a war movie. Even if it's the greatest thing ever put on Earth since my birth.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

What a weird post

I think he’s simply stating that no matter how highly people speak of 3 Women, he can’t get himself to watch it. Sounds like he doesn’t loathe it or the idea of it, necessarily – just that when the mood strikes to watch something, this one is always somewhere far down the list.

[Aladinsane]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

What a weird post

How weird though? Shelley Duvall weird or Sissy Spacek weird?

[MeMynonsense]

Saw a delicious little heist-noir called Intimidation (part of The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara Eclipse set).

It revolves around Takita - a corrupt, ladder-climbing banker who’s blackmailed into robbing his own bank before he leaves for a cushy corporate promotion.
There’s also Nakaike, his guileless, unambitious subordinate (and childhood friend - who might make the perfect fall-guy) and his hateful sister Yukie who’s harbouring her share of regrets and bitter resentments.

Kurahara comes across as a seasoned exponent of the genre particularly during the supremely executed, tension-fraught heist sequence - effectively employing quick cuts, sweaty close-ups to highlight the desperation-infested claustrophobic bank setting.
There's also some daring Hitchcockian camerawork:
Like a distinctive high angle shot in a key extortion scene (a la Dial M for Murder) or a pair of eerily-lensed, bookending train sequences (a la Shadow of a Doubt).

But it’s in its final act where Intimidation soars loaded with clever twists & turns as it transforms into a vengeful game of chess where the players use coercive leverage and deep-rooted hostilities to one-up each other.
Cerebrally intense, it never lets us off the hook throughout its 65 min runtime and would’ve been right at home in their earlier “Nikkatsu Noir” release.

This is a brilliant little film that needs to be seen and appreciated.

[JJJ225]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

For me it's 3 Women > Persona > Mulholland Drive. I've never seen 3 Women prior to owning a Criterion blu ray, partly because I understand it hasn't had any home video release whatsoever until the Criterion DVD, which came out around 2003-04. I could not believe that such a masterpiece could be hidden from the public for all those years.

I think I slightly prefer Persona to 3 Women, but I wouldn't object to your rankings! I would rank Mulholland Drive last, but what a foolish endeavor. All three are absolutely masterpieces and make for a wonderful trilogy.

Originally Posted by jhiggy23

I'm looking forward to Manchester by the Sea, but I thought Margaret was absolutely awful and a disaster.

Couldn't disagree more. I think it's a damn near masterpiece and one of the great American films of this decade. I think it will be remembered many years from now as a an overlooked classic.

[kuro_sawa]

Originally Posted by Aladinsane

How weird though? Shelley Duvall weird or Sissy Spacek weird?

Turrets syndrome via keyboard weird. I assume I'll understand it once he gets a wife. If he feels like it, that is.

[llj]

Originally Posted by kuro_sawa

Turrets syndrome via keyboard weird. I assume I'll understand it once he gets a wife. If he feels like it, that is.

It's spelled t-o-u-r-r-e-t-t-e FYI. A turret relates to a gun. Of course, if you are meaning to say I type shit out like a gun turret, OK then.

I was merely commenting on the 3 Women conversation in here, and in particular Ray Jackson's cold reception to it, coupled with the trend of people who go through all the "classic" movies they make a mission to watch in a very short time (say 20 movies in the next 4 weeks) seemingly without a care or knowledge as to what they're about or what genre they are or whether they are even interested in it. I find that fascinating, behaviour wise.

I know a lot of cinephiles who go out and compile a critics' list of "the top 100 films ever" (either from AFI or IMDB or some other poll--I imagine that's how Mulholland Drive viewings suddenly shot up in here in the past few weeks) and then just go through the entire list in no particular order, either randomly or not or whether they are in the mood for it or not. In short, it's like "forcing" yourself to watch something based on some kind of perceived rep a film has.

This results in, quite often, people running into a great film at the wrong time simply because they weren't in the right frame of mind to watch it.

For example: I watched the The Tin Drum for the very first time last year and really liked it. But if I had watched it 5 years ago when I would not be in the mood for that kind of subject matter, I would have been bored with it. My point is, timing can sometimes count in how one receives a film on any particular day, month, or year.

People shouldn't simply choose to watch a movie based solely on its rep. You should watch it because you're genuinely interested in what it's about. Like, I have a feeling if 3 Women were not a Criterion release and had NO reputation whatsoever, Ray wouldn't have even touched it. And I wouldn't blame him.

Originally Posted by Aladinsane

How weird though? Shelley Duvall weird or Sissy Spacek weird?

I'm totally Sissy Spacek weird! Well, okay, I can relate to Shelley Duvall's perpetual state of anxiety attacks, but Sissy got that "I may be meek but I'm just tired of your shit" weird.

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by llj

People shouldn't simply choose to watch a movie based solely on its rep. You should watch it because you're genuinely interested in what it's about.

This would be a problematic stance for me as I don't want to know what a movie is about before watching it. I watch it to find out what it's about.

[llj]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

This would be a problematic stance for me as I don't want to know what a movie is about before watching it. I watch it to find out what it's about.

But I'm assuming that since you watch physical media, you have the disc and its case in your hands at some point in the pre-viewing phase and at that point you get some idea of what kind of subject matter it MAY BE about, even without reading the back summary.

For the most part, you usually can make a reasonable mental stab at what a film might be about about based on the cover. Unless of course you get a case like this, of course:




I mean surely if you look at this:



You think "Okay, Touch of Zen is the name of this film. There's an Asian girl with a sword (or two?) on it. Based on my calculations coupled with my past cinephilia experience this MAY BE a martial arts movie."

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

This would be a problematic stance for me as I don't want to know what a movie is about before watching it. I watch it to find out what it's about.

is that possible, though? ideally, I'd like to approach new films the same way, but between this thread and so many online critics (pro and non-pro,) I find that to be impossible.